Miami Dolphins war-room drama on draft day? Nope

The Miami Dolphins had some draft day drama in their war-room according to a report and frankly you shouldn’t buy it.

Stephen Ross implored his team to trade out of the 11th pick and gain more picks in the draft as well as save some money. This according a report by former Dolphins beat writer and now Boston Globe Patriot beater Ben Volin.

"A well-placed league source tells us that the Dolphins had the pick of Alabama safety Minkah Fitzpatrick all ready to go at No. 11 when owner Stephen Ross stepped in and implored his team to trade back, both to acquire more picks and to save money on the first-rounder. Ross’s football people talked him out of it, and the Dolphins went ahead with the Fitzpatrick pick – Ben Volin Boston Globe."

You have to scroll pretty far down on the article that covers a lot of the NFL teams and their draft thoughts. Interestingly enough, it would seem that a blurb about Stephen Ross and any drama in Miami would warrant a higher spot in his article. I mean come on, it’s a division rival.

The fact that it is so far down is the first key to thinking, “yeah, someone is reaching for this one”.

This is not to say that Volin doesn’t still have connections with the Dolphins but how high are those connections that it would include someone in that room when the Dolphins are on the clock in round one? Considering the people who are actually in that room, I would say his sources are not that high.

Is this even a relevant topic? No. It has however made a lot of waves on social media and while some fans have discounted it entirely there are those who are, once again, calling Ross an idiot owner.

Let’s assume that the report is correct or even a small portion of it. The conversation likely would have gone something like this.

Ross – I thought we were going to try to trade down and get more picks

Tannenbaum/Gase/Grier – We didn’t expect Fitzpatrick to fall to 11

Ross – O.k.

That is probably the extent of it and maybe Ross utters the fact that 11 gets paid more than say 20. If Ross did ask about trading down isn’t that his right as an owner? An owner who by the way has stayed completely out of the football side of things since taking over the team. Do you really think he is going to jump in now?

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Now let’s look at Stephen Ross. An owner who has had more downs that ups but has done nothing short of opening up his checkbook. Ross is eating a ton of dead money this year thanks to several cuts including Ndamukong Suh. Do you think he is worried about the 11th picks salary for 2018? Maybe he was talking about the teams cap structure. “Save some rookie pool money and help the cap”. That might make sense.

Implore them to trade down? That is so far from Ross’ MO that it is crazy.

This is an owner who just sunk millions in stadium renovations. An owner who sunk millions in his teams state of the art training facility. An owner who is now looking at moving that same training facility to Miami-Dade county.

Money? That alone should tell you the facts about this report. Stephen Ross will do anything for his football team. He wants a winning franchise more than any of us care to imagine.

Drama. That is what was reported. Drama between Ross and his head coach, G.M., and whatever Tannenbaum’s job title really is. Guess what, they have discussions. All owners and executives do. This report is probably based on a discussion.

So was there drama in that war-room? No. Maybe discussion but someone decided to create drama and that ballooned into a tiny blurb at the end of a long article about the NFL draft. And now it sits here being discussed.

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